Midnight, Texas: Charlaine Harris books get NBC adaptation

Best-selling author Charlaine Harris — whose addictive Sookie Stackhouse novels became HBO’s sexy vampire hit True Blood — may soon be seeing more of her spooky tales adapted for primetime.

EW has learned exclusively that NBC is developing a drama for fall 2016 that will be based on Harris’ best-selling series Midnight, Texas, which focuses on a fictitious and very creepy town in the Lone Star state.

“It’s where humans and the supernatural co-exist, and where everyone has a secret,” says executive producer David Janollari (Six Feet Under), who is adapting the books with Monica Breen (Lost) for fall 2016. “It’s equal parts humorous, sexy, and downright scary.”

The first book in the series, Midnight Crossroad, was published last year, while a follow-up, Day Shift, was released in May. The third, Night Shift, is to set debut next spring. If picked up to series, the drama will be called Midnight, Texas.

“All the books have great murders at the center,” Janollari says. “There are these great secrets and great romantic entanglements happening with this big mystery backdrop, though it’s the supernatural that will scare the hell out of you.”

True Blood launched in 2008 with a marquee star in Oscar winner Anna Paquin, but Janollari doesn’t think Midnight will be a challenge to cast. “It’s not dependent on above-the-title names to be successful,” he says. “In Charlaine’s books, its first and foremost all about the characters.”